Gwen Stefani Says Her Kids Helped Her Realize She Struggles With Dyslexia

In a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s At Home With series, Gwen Stefani opened up about how she learned she had dyslexia. The pop queen shared that she struggled in school and never received a proper diagnosis or support until she learned her three sons Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo also have similar experiences with the learning disorder that affects up to 20% of the population.

“One thing that I’ve discovered through having kids is that I have dyslexia—everyone has things that happen and mine was that,” Stefani shared. “I feel like a lot of the problems that I have had or even decisions that I’ve made for myself stem from that, because now the children—obviously, it’s all genetic—they have some of those issues.”

Opening up about her experience as a student, she shared that she struggled academically. “I was a good girl. I didn’t do any bad stuff. It was just really hard for me to function in that square box of school that everybody was supposed to be understanding. And my brain didn’t work like that; it still doesn’t. But it works in different ways that are probably a gift that other people can’t do.”

But it seems that having dyslexia served as a silver lining to help her build confidence as a musician and songwriter. Of her early days as No Doubt’s frontwoman, she shared, “At that time I had written that whole record not even knowing how to write a song and I had literally laid my entire life out for everyone to hear. And then I’m still in the band with [ex-boyfriend] Tony [Kanal] who I was so dependent on, because of probably my dyslexia.”

It was only recently that she made the connection between her learning differences and her confidence. “I didn’t know any of this until now, but I think that I didn’t have any confidence in myself, at the time, but when I would write a song or I would get on stage, it just felt so right and the only thing that was going right for me.”

Thankfully, her sons seem to have much more support in their studies. “They have these incredible teachers and schools and they don’t have to have shame about it. They understand that their brain functions in a different way. All of our brains do.”

Stefani’s story serves as a reminder that even though we all learn and read differently, having adequate support from family and teachers is so important, and it sounds like she’s doing what she can to help her sons have a much better experience in school than she did.